If you're a regular reader of my reviews, first of all: Thank you. Also, you're probably familiar with how much I absolutely despise the "movies" of Michael Bay. He started out so well, with Bad Boys and The Rock (both of which I still enjoy, despite my feelings), but beginning with the second half of Armageddon, his "movies" became over-bloated, plotless and jumbled spectacles of incomprehensible excess.

Luckily, he has given up that chair to someone else for the Transformers prequel Bumblebee.

The year is 1987. The Transformers' home planet of Cybertron is in the midst of a civil war between the Autobots and Decepticons. Sensing imminent defeat, the Autobots' leader, Optimus Prime, sends some of his troops across the galaxy in search of a planet suitable to use as a new home base, with his most trusted scout, B-127, heading to Earth. He is chased down by the Decepticon Blitzwing, and their ensuing fight leaves B-127 with severe damage, especially to his memory banks.

Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld) is just trying to survive the summer before her senior year, working at a Hot Dog on a Stick and trying to fix the car she and her dad were restoring before his death. In the junkyard she frequents for parts, Charlie discovers a beat up Volkswagen Beetle. Desperate for a car of her own, Charlie strikes a deal and takes the Beetle home.

When she starts to work on the car that first night, it transforms to reveal B-127's robot form. The robot is just as scared of her as she is of him, at first, but they quickly bond. Charlie even gives him a name: Bumblebee.

Meanwhile, two Decepticon soldiers, Shatter and Dropkick, have tracked Bee to Earth. A team from a government agency called Sector 7, led by Agent Jack Burns (John Cena), pick up their signal and confront the two robots. The Decepticons convince the humans that B-127 is the real enemy to their planet. Burns, having witnessed Bee's arrival, is skeptical, but his objections are squashed as Sector 7 agrees to cooperate with these visitors.

Bumblebee is one heck of a fun ride. It has action, humor, heart and character, as well as a plot that respects the source cartoons. None of that can be said about any of Bay's entries. Well, except for the action part, which those movies had in overblown overabundance.

Director Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings) obviously has a love and admiration for Transformers, another thing that can't be said about Michael Bay. One of my biggest gripes about those other movies is how you can barely tell one robot from another when not in their vehicular forms. They're just massive grey metal beasts. Especially the Decepticons, who have no discernible individual characteristics when in either form.

In Knight's vision, they look exactly like their cartoon counterparts, the way they should. The film opens with a huge battle on Cybertron and, even in the chaos, you can tell which robot is which (including a couple fun cameos for us superfans). I knew I was in for a different kind of Transformers experience when I found myself giddily grinning ear-to-ear during this relatively short intro.

That different experience continues through the whole film. The fantastic script by Christina Hodson allows for plenty of character development, not just with Charlie, but with each member of her family, with Memo (Jorge Lendeborg, Jr., Spider-Man: Homecoming), Charlie's next door neighbor who has a crush on her and even with Burns.

I was truly invested in their lives and well-beings, which I never was in what came before this. They are so well drawn, and they're given a much more character-driven story in which to exist. There are even moments of heavy emotion that are handled with such a deft hand that I got choked up a little. That's right, choked up at a Transformers movie!

Another thing that floored me about Bumblebee was how accurately it captured the spirt and atmosphere of living in 1987. Most movies set during a modern/recent time period feel like just that: A movie trying to give its best impression of what life was like back then. This film really feels like it's set in the '80s, almost to the point you'd swear it was actually filmed back then and kept on a shelf until now.

Of course, this being the 1980s, the film has an awesome soundtrack. Knight has peppered it with so many classic tunes, some you hear in almost every '80s-set movie, while others a little off the beaten path also make an appearance. I probably looked goofy, mouthing the words and bopping my head along with these songs, but I didn't care. I was having that much fun!

So, if you can't tell, Bumblebee turned out to be one of the biggest, and best, surprises of 2018, for me. I will definitely be making plans to go back to see it again as soon as I can.